But, for obvious reasons, no party leader is taking the name of B S Yeddyurappa, the Karnataka chief minister, who till June 12-13 national executive of the party in Patna, was virtually dubbed as Narendra Modi in the South. Today any mention of Yeddyurappa’s name here may only embarrass the party for Karnataka politics has become a laughing stock of the country.

Notwithstanding chief minister Nitish Kumar making a tight rope walking the former deputy Prime Minister, Lal Krishna Advani, never feel shy in praising Narendra Modi in Bihar. Others too think that the very mention of Narendra Modi may bring in a few more votes to the party.

But Sushma Swaraj, and some others, think the other way round. A lady, who started his political career as a Socialist, finally managed to reach the top of the BJP. She sees Narendra Modi of the RSS background, as the man who can challenge her in the race for the post of Prime Ministerial camdodate of the party. Keeping this in mind she said that there is no need for Modi in Bihar. Instead she took the name of Bihar’s own Modi––Sushil Kumar––who will be more suitable in the state.

Reports from Ahmedabad suggest that Narendra Modi is upset over her remarks made in Bihar. On Monday she said that the Gujarat chief minister is unlikely to sway voters in Bihar though she added that the BJP made a clean sweep in local bodies election there. Still she chose not to single out only Narendra Modi for the praise.

If the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha is not very pleased to see Modi’s stature growing outside his own state the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, too teamed up with the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, in Patna.

There is a tough competition in the second rung of the BJP leadership of the country. There is no dearth of matured and senior leaders and cadres in the party who dislike Narendra Modi’s approach and style, which they say bring bad name and restrict the growth of the party outside Gujarat. They saw how the Narendra Modi experiment proved disastrous in 2009 Lok Sabha election. In most of the states where he went the BJP lost. In Bihar he was kept away, therefore, the National Democratic Alliance managed to do well. Had he been here he would have polarized the voters and subsequently affected the poll-prospect of the NDA candidates.

The anti-Modi camps know very well that in Gujarat the percentage of Muslims is almost half to that of Bihar––just over nine per cent against 16.5 in Bihar. Any such polarization in Bihar will upset the applecart. Besides, Bihar has a regional opponent party with an influential leader to cash in on any such gamble.

Thus, in the garb of opposition from Nitish Kumar, many BJP leaders are trying to cut the stauture of Narendra Modi.

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